Cali, D. (2007). Piano, Piano. Illus. Eric Heliot. New York, NY: Charlesbridge Publishing.
Brief Annotation: Marcolino would rather do anything than practise his piano. His mother demands he do it....and further prodding reveals that she herself had a dream of becoming a grand pianist! After a visit to his grandpa, Marcolino gets the help he needs by having Grandpa remind his mother of how much she disliked playing the piano herself...and Marcolino finds a new instrument that he loves!
Genre: Poetry/Verse
Grade Level: 1-4
Readers who will like this: Any child having to do something they don't want to, children who like verse and interesting illustrations.
Response/Rating: ***. While I enjoyed the verse and illustrations, I was more distracted by how much I disliked the mother character. I know that the author was trying to make a point but I was really kind of disappointed with how the mother treated her son.
One question you would ask before a read aloud: What do you do when you have to do something you don't want to?
Interesting commentary on the mother. I just wrote a response to a book that Jodi read called One Crazy Summer in which I noted that the mother is very unappealing as well. Maybe there's a textset developing--moms who don't deserve the title . . .
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